The government has failed to address the environmental deficit, PL spokesman Leo Brincat said today.
Addressing a news conference, Mr Brincat said that 75 per cent of time frames set in the environmental policy were to be met after the election for the government to avoid being criticised before one was held.
He said that while other countries had clear aims and policies on sustainable development, a green economy and green jobs, Malta did not even have an action plan.
The news conference was also addressed by spokesman Gavin Gulia who said that although the government boasted of certain tourism figures, reality was different.
The figures of foreign visitors for last year included around 20,000 people who came for a day at the beginning of the conflict in Libya. This meant that had these people not come over, the increase of tourists in 2011 over 2010 would have been of three and not six per cent.
When one compared the first three months of this year to the first three months of 2011, one would see a drop of 11 per cent. While the EU registered an average increase of five per cent in January this year over January last year, Malta registered a 1.7 per cent drop.
Dr Gulia hoped that the Air Malta restructuring agreed with the European Commission would be in the best interest of the airline and the tourism industry.
He said that routes should not be reduced and Air Malta should retain its 50 per cent seat capacity.
TOURISM MINISTRY REPLIES
Replying, the Ministry of tourism said the government did not need to play about with figures because the figures showed that Malta had a tourism record last year, whether or not one included people who were evacuated from Libya.
Those who stayed in Malta after having been evacuated from Libya had to be included in the tourism figures because of statistical requirements, but even if they were excluded, the figures last year were still a record. 1.41 million people came to Malta last year. Evacuees were only 13,000. There were 1.33 million arrivals in 2010.
It was shameful that the opposition tried to criticise the figures when it should be proud that the country had been able to perform so well despite the tensions in the Mediterranean at the time, the ministry said.